Today, I am Thankful for My Mom's Stuffing

As I sit here and write this, the most wonderful aroma is filling the house. It's the smell of sage and poultry seasoning, melding together and making my mouth water for one of the many things I am thankful for this year, my mom's stuffing.

This is an easy recipe for the world's best stuffing. Granted, I am probably biased in that opinion but you can make it and judge for yourself.

Like with the soup, this recipe is not written down anywhere and several people have been dying to get it from my mother for years – people like my aunt Ginger who can't wait for this column to be posted.

My mom, Colleen, wakes up every year at 7 a.m. to make this delicious stuffing and prepare the turkey. She gets out all the ingredients, sets them on the counter and prepares to mix together, from memory, the most amazing combination of ingredients to bring us bowls full of gooey, moist stuffing.

"I never really go off a recipe," she said as she added the herbs to the celery. "For most of it I go by taste and smell. I like a lot of sage and poultry seasoning, so I add until the mixture smells right."

For those of you who stuff the turkey with stuffing, you will want to make this early and bake it in the oven, for as long as you bake the turkey, at 350 degrees.

For those who make the stuffing separately, you can whip this together and throw it in the over at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes.

To make the stuffing you will need the following:

• 2 bags of whole wheat bread, torn into pieces and left out overnight
• 1 bag of herb seasoned stuffing (my mom prefers the cubes)
• 8 stalks of celery, washed and sliced into small pieces
• 1 stick of real butter (my mom is insistent upon this) melted
• Approximately 4 teaspoons of sage
• Approximately 5 teaspoons of poultry seasoning
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 32 ounce box or can of chicken broth

To start, tear apart two whole loaves of bread and leave out overnight to dry out. Next, chop up eight stalks of celery. Then, melt one whole stick of real butter. Go back to the bowl with the celery, and add 4 or so teaspoons of sage. You can add more or less depending on your taste. Then add five teaspoons of poultry seasoning. As with the sage, you can add more or less depending on taste. Add two teaspoons of salt to the celery and herbs.

Next, add the bread to the mixture. Pour the melted butter over the bread, then add most of the broth. Mix well. Add the herb seasoned stuffing and mix with the rest of the chicken broth mixture. Next step is to stuff the turkey. Our turkey is 26.5 pounds this year, so it will cook at 350 degrees for approximately 5 hours. Once stuffed and ready to go, finish seasoning the turkey and place it in the oven. Remember, if you don't want to stuff the turkey you can cook the stuffing for 40 minutes, in a separate dish, in a 350 degree oven. Enjoy!